On this date in 1966 The Beatles' single Yellow Submarine was released. Here are ten facts about it.
The song appeared on the album Revolver, and was a double A side with Eleanor Rigby. It was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Lennon wrote the verse melody, and McCartney wrote the chorus.
It was the only British Beatles single to feature Ringo as lead vocalist. Part of the motivation behind it was to ensure that there was a song on Revolver featuring him, as he was the most popular Beatle at the time, especially in America.
The song was intended to be a song for children. McCartney said: "It's a happy place, that's all... We were trying to write a children's song. That was the basic idea."
That said, there is a recording, which is featured on a 2022 Special Edition release of Revolver, entitled “Songwriting Work Tape/Part 1” in which Lennon sings some rather darker lyrics to the same tune: “In the place where I was born / No one cared, no one cared / And the name when I was born / No one cared, no one cared.”
The singer Donovan contributed one of the lines. Just before the Beatles were due to record the Revolver album, McCartney visited Donovan’s apartment in London and played him some of the songs. McCartney said he was stuck on one line from Yellow Submarine and could Donovan help? Donovan came up with "Sky of Blue and sea of Green" and McCartney liked it enough to keep it in.
It’s not certain where the idea for a Yellow Submarine initially came from. McCartney claims it was from a yellow Greek dessert locally called a “submarine”, while Lennon claims he saw a yellow submarine during his first LSD trip.
At one point, Yellow Submarine included a spoken-word section by Starr, but the band decided against including it.
Lennon and McCartney went into the studio’s echo chamber and started playing around with random nautical phrases that popped into their heads, such as “Full steam ahead, Mister Boatswain” which were added to the final mix.
Two years later, the song inspired an animated film featuring the Fab Four, although the band weren’t involved much with the making of the film, in which their cartoon personas fought villains called the Blue Meanies.
The song Yellow Submarine won an Ivor Novello award for being the single a-side which achieved the highest certified British sales.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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